By Don Sadler
Stress, burnout and labor shortage are often used to describe medical professions, especially when it comes to nurses. Amid all the negative commentary, there are amazing men and women leading dynamic careers as perioperative professionals. They are patient advocates. They are care providers. They are heroes.
OR Today dedicates this cover article to those important men and women as several of them share what they love about their career choice and the vital work they accomplish on a regular basis.
Renee Hildebrand, MSN, CSSM, CNOR, RNFA, Director of Perioperative Services
Renee Hildebrand
It makes me sad when I hear people who “haven’t found their niche” or move their entire lives in different jobs searching for the “perfect” career. I feel that I have found my perfect career as a perioperative nurse.
My OR career spans 43 years and I can honestly say that this lifelong journey and career has provided me with learnings I never thought possible, along with friendships and expertise in my field. My OR career path has taken me through the stages of my career from a CST, circulating RN, education specialist and now a perioperative leader.
To be not only the patient advocate, but also the family advocate, for a patient who is having surgery really takes ahold of your soul. The OR was “my calling” and the passion I have for my periop career … I really have no words for it. The gift I have been given to be a perioperative nurse is really an honor.
One of the most gratifying things I do is to make my drive, energy, encouragement and passion contagious to other people in the perioperative arena.
Natalie Lind CRCST, CHL, CIS, HSPA Director of Education
Natalie Lind
I began my career as a sterile processing technician over 40 years ago. Since then, I have worked almost every position in the field, from lead and department director to college faculty and now education director at HSPA.
In the health care facility, the importance of providing functional and safe instruments and helping ensure that they are complete and on time is critical to patient safety. The work can be fast-paced, and no two days are the same. Sterile processing must keep abreast of changes in technologies, standards and guidelines. We must always be ready to meet the needs of providers, which requires effective communication and continual education and training.
Sterile processing professionals are always seeking to learn more about their profession and the processes they perform. Watching technologies advance and knowledge evolve is exciting, and being a part of the team that works together to provide excellent patient care is very rewarding.
Katelyn Nolan BSN, RN, Circulating Nurse
Katelyn Nolan
During nursing school, I had the opportunity to get my feet wet in many different nursing specialties. I enrolled in a perioperative nursing clinical taught by CCI and this is where I found my passion for the operating room.
Advocacy is a huge part of a nurse’s role while in the OR. I am the patient’s voice, which is empowering in itself. The connection made with patients and their families prior to taking them in for surgery is one of the best parts of my day. Knowing that I can make them feel comfortable and ease their anxiety prior to their procedure brings me joy.
I love working as a team with different professions in one room. Most importantly, every day is different, and I am always learning!
William Romo-Murphy CRCST, CIS, CER, CHL, HSPA Subject Matter Expert, Saint Joseph Hospital, Sterile Processing Manager
William Romo-Murphy
Together, our facility’s perioperative team asks, “What is best for our patient?” We look at all aspects of the case including timing, staffing and instrumentation needs. I genuinely enjoy this type of purposeful teamwork and knowing that sterile processing plays a vital role keeps me motivated and inspired to be part of the perioperative team.
Our SP technicians work to ensure that all instrumentation needed for the next patient works properly and is clean, sterile and ready for use. This is the true essence of a patient care team, even behind the scenes. With the schedule on the board and instruments at the OR suite’s door, we are ready to care for our patients. In sterile processing, we may not hold a patient’s hand as they are wheeled into surgery, but we are there in spirit and with the instruments we provided for their care.
Beth Bozzelli, MBA, RN, CNOR, CSSM, Vice President, Surgical Services, Lifepoint Health
Beth Bozzelli
Perioperative nursing is the best! I was lucky enough to come right out of nursing school and straight into the operating room. As perioperative nurses, we are with patients when they are at their most vulnerable.
Perioperative nursing is a team concept. We work collaboratively with surgeons, anesthesia, techs and assistants to care for our patients. We are completely focused on one patient at a time, which to me is a huge plus.
Every day is different and a challenge. There is a rush coming in on call and thinking through all the things needed to support your patient. It is high stress and fast paced – and I love it!
Erin Johnston, RN, American Family Children’s Hospital
Erin Johnston
I have been a pediatric circulating nurse for just under a year now and joining the perioperative team has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. There are many things I love about being a perioperative nurse, but there is something extremely special about gaining the trust of a scared parent while handing their child over during one of the most frightening moments of their life.
Supporting patients and families during what can be a terrifying experience is one of my favorite things about being in this role. Working in the operating room allows me to focus on one patient at a time and devote all my energy toward ensuring my patient is well cared for. Additionally, I have the opportunity to learn from, collaborate with and build connections with other health care professionals that I otherwise would not have.
Working in the perioperative field is completely different than anything I have ever experienced before. Yet it has been one of the most fulfilling roles I have ever had.
Nakeisha Tolliver, DNP, MBA, RN, NE-BC, CNOR, CSSM President, AORN
Director of Perioperative Services, Pavilion for Women, Texas Children’s Hospital
Nakeisha Tolliver
As a perioperative nurse, I’m grateful for the opportunity to help people during their most challenging times. Each day, I witness the incredible strength of the human spirit as I provide empathy and expertise to those in need.
What drives my passion for perioperative nursing is the profound impact I have on people’s lives. Nursing is a calling to serve and support, from listening to someone’s fears to providing comfort with a gentle touch. It is an honor to be a guiding light in someone’s darkest moments and watch miracles happen every day.
Through my work, I am reminded of the immense value of what I do and the positive impact it has on the lives of those I serve.
Sharon A. McNamara, RN, BSN, MS, CNOR
Sharon A. McNamara
When I stop to count my blessings, the opportunity to spend my career as a perioperative registered nurse is right up there. I was devastated when I finished high school and was declined for nursing school. Instead, I entered a surgical technology program and was immediately hooked. I loved the OR, but I felt the need to expand my knowledge and skills and become a Registered Nurse.
Twelve years later, I had achieved an AAS, RN, BSN, MSN, CNOR, while attending night school, working full time and raising a family. I became active in AORN locally and nationally, which gave me an opportunity to impact the profession and culminated in becoming AORN National President in 2005-2006. An easy road? No, but making a difference one patient at a time has been awesome.
I have practiced in numerous clinical and administrative roles, caring for patients across the spectrum of perioperative services. Every patient has a special place in my heart and soul, each to be remembered for touching my life in such a spiritual way. This is how much I love perioperative nursing!
Brenda C. Ulmer, RN, MN, CNOR, FAORN
Brenda C. Ulmer
I clearly recall the day I fell in love with the operating room. I was a student nurse and the procedure was a posterior laminectomy at the VA hospital in Atlanta. Everything that happened in the OR fascinated me. As I watched the surgery, my stomach growled with hunger and I remember thinking, “If I feel hungry watching an open bleeding wound, this must be where I am supposed to be!”
From that day in 1974 on, my feelings for and commitment to perioperative nursing have never wavered. After 50 years, I still love perioperative nursing. My love of the OR is true for all the reasons you might imagine – a lifelong career filled with learning, advancing surgical care and the worldwide perioperative community.
Aside from the skill and knowledge nurses possess, I have always loved that I can connect with another perioperative nurse anywhere in the U.S. or the world and we speak the same language.
Elaine D. Geroski, RN, MSN, CNOR, CSSM (E), AVP of Patient Services, WVU Medicine Grant Memorial Hospital
Elaine D. Geroski
Becoming a perioperative nurse was a life-long dream of mine. I always thought I would love this area of nursing, but truth be known, I didn’t have a clue what a perioperative nurse really does. I learned that in the OR, patients are relying entirely on the perioperative nurse to speak and advocate for them. It’s so important to me to make sure everything is correct for my patients.
The respect and camaraderie as a perioperative nurse with the other members of the OR team is amazing. The physicians and anesthesia depend on us to keep the room in order and watch all who enter for compliance. When we speak up, we are heard and it is welcomed!
My patients will never know how I advocated for their safety, but knowing I did is the greatest satisfaction for me. I’ve never needed instant gratification – I just have an insane need to always do the right thing, which is what drew me to perioperative nursing.
Darcie Opalko, MBA, MS, RN, CNOR, CSSM, NEA-BC, Independence Health-Westmoreland
Darcie Opalko
My love for the perioperative specialty is deeply rooted within me. I began my career as a surgical technician, never thinking I would return to school, let alone become a nurse, but that is exactly what I did. I became a perioperative nurse because there is no other specialty that encompasses teamwork more. Every person in the OR has a role and the common goal is to deliver safe patient care each and every time.
Our patients are completely reliant on us having strong voices and seeing to it that each team member is focused on every detail to ensure positive outcomes. We witness every aspect of life throughout our career and we learn to never take anything for granted. We see the greatest of joys, like watching the birth of a baby or seeing our first organ transplant, as well as the lowest of lows. Despite never knowing the patient prior to the procedure, we feel sorrow for every death or bad outcome we witness.
So, what keeps me in the operating room? The relationships I have made and the passion for making a difference in the lives of others.
Monique L. Jelks, BA, MSOL, CRCST, Director of Sterile Processing, Memorial Health University Medical Center
Monique L. Jelks
To be a sterile processing professional means to be a champion of teamwork and quality service and to grow fruit that we may never taste. It is the most rewarding work behind the scenes of surgery, where we are responsible for processing and providing life-saving instruments and medical devices for patients we rarely will meet or see.
Although we work in different departments, we are very much part of the perioperative team and play an integral role in patient safety and positive procedural outcomes. Each day in our roles offers an exciting new opportunity to help improve the quality of life for surgical patients.
Gavan Young, MSN, RN, Director of Nurses, DISC Surgery Center, Thousand Oaks, CA
Gavan Young
As a perioperative nurse, I love that the perioperative department is unique in all nursing. Only here will nurses work one-on-one with their patients on an interdisciplinary team of the registered nurse, surgical tech, radiology tech, surgeon and anesthesiologist.
There’s nowhere else in health care where this many professionals come together for hours to care for one patient at a time. Health care becomes a team sport, with all team members working together to achieve the same outcome. When I have a question for the surgeon or anesthesiologist, I state the question out loud and receive an instant answer.
As the nurse in the operating room, I know my voice is heard and respected because I am working alongside the same people I have for years and reached a level of trust with them that’s seldom seen elsewhere.
Rose Decena, RN, Director of Nurses, DISC Surgery Center, Marina Del Rey, CA
Rose Decena
What I love most about being a perioperative nurse is the gratification I receive when a patient is discharged having experienced quality care and goes home to their life, which is now changed and improved for the better.
As a perioperative nurse, I have embraced my most difficult challenges and successfully turned those difficulties into learning moments that have improved the culture of my work over the last 24 years. I have helped patients who had no support system. I’ve cared for a patient who had been burned during surgery and a patient who was left paralyzed after surgery. But no experience has been more fulfilling than helping patients overcome pain while giving hope to their families.
I also love that I have been able to contribute to building team dynamics that are fully invested in the safety and well-being of the surgical patient. Although perfection may never be attainable, that is what I strive for every day in my role as a perioperative nurse.
